Can anyone break this down in a few words

[meelowsmom]

I think my little Chihuahua Milo has cushings. He's got a slightly enlarged heart and liver. Not sure yet about xray of his glands. He's 7, big abdomen, usually pees everywhere, but more so, weight gain, growing moles, dark patches, alopecia forever and I found a white spot on his elbow while waiting for the doc and really bad breath and teeth.

If its a tumor and they take it out how much will that cost?
How much do the meds cost and what are side effects?
What's the life expectancy?

Thank you!

[molly muffin]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Can they do a dental on him to take care of any teeth problems as that can affect a whole bunch of things.

Did they do any regular blood work and urinalysis/culture? If so what are the high or/and low results out of range? If you could post that it would help us to give you better feedback.

If you proceed with checking for cushings, then an LDDS test is the test of choice usually first, but you do want to rule out diabetes and thyroid or primary kidney disease.

A tumor can be removed if it is on the adrenal gland. It's risky but every surgery is and yes it does usually cure cushings. If the tumor is on the pituitary gland then only a couple places in the US do that surgery and it's tricky. Usually they treat with medication, such as trilostane (Vetroyl) or miotane (Lysodren).

Medicine can be costly but it is the more mg you have to give the more expensive. In a chi it probably wouldn't be too bad if you are doing trilostane say at 1mg/1lb ratio as recommended to start. Maybe 30 or so dollars a month. It is the diagnosing and then the follow up ACTH testing that is more expensive, as that runs in the hundreds per test usually.

Life span depends on if there are no other issues. If you get the cushings controlled, then life span can be normal, as we have seen here.